SFS aims to reduce its emissions by more than 90% by 2030

News – 31 May 2021

Despite the significant challenges of the last year – triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic – SFS still continued to systematically pursue its priorities in the area of sustainability. Ambitious targets were adopted, including a more than 90% reduction in emissions by 2030 and a roadmap on how to reach that goal. The number of work-related accidents was reduced by another –13.3%, thus putting the Group closer to reaching its medium-term goal of cutting this number by half by 2025.

Ambitious goals defined for the five material topics
As a member of the UN Global Compact, SFS is committed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and currently prioritizes four of those goals: SDG 4 – Quality education, SDG 8 – Decent work and economic growth, SDG 12 – Responsible consumption and production, and SDG 13 – Climate action. This prioritization reflects the five material topics as determined in the materiality assessment conducted in 2019. During the year under review, the main focus was on achieving improvements in these areas and on making an important contribution to the global SDGs through the Group’s set goals.

CO2 emissions (Scope 1 and 2) to be reduced by ≥90% by 2030
One particularly important milestone during the year under review was the development and approval of the roadmap, which contains measurable objectives for reducing CO2 emissions. In specific terms, this means SFS aims to reduce carbon emissions within the company (Scope 1) and emissions from the generation of energy purchased from an external source (Scope 2) by ≥90% by 2030. By 2040, the company also intends to reduce its CO2 emissions along the entire supply chain (Scope 3) by ≥90%. Emission reductions are calculated in CO2 tonnes in relation to the value added (contribution margin 2 in CHF).

Number of work-related accidents reduced by –13.3%
In the area of occupational health and safety, SFS successfully reduced the number of work-related accidents by another –13.3% to a total of 85 accidents in 2020 (2019: 98). That puts the company one step closer to reaching its medium-term goal for 2025 of cutting the number of work-related accidents by half compared to 2019.

Five percent of employees participated in a dual education program in 2020
SFS is a strong advocate of the dual-track system of vocational education and training. The company’s goal is to have 5–7% of the workforce enrolled in a dual education program as apprentices or employees and it achieved that goal once again in 2020 (5.0%; 2019: 6.3%). Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, it was not possible to expand these education programs. In fact, some of them had to be curtailed, which explains the year-on-year decline.

Outlook: review of material topics in 2021
Direct, continuous dialog with stakeholders forms the basis of the “Inventing Success Together” value proposition that SFS actively pursues inside and outside the company. SFS critically evaluates the relevance of its material topics and their position in the materiality matrix every two years. Extensive interviews with the identified stakeholder groups are scheduled to take place again in 2021, and the results of this analysis and any changes to the priorities will be presented in the Sustainability Report 2021.